Happy 10 year anniversary, Overwatch!
While the game launched 10 years ago, Team 4 started working on it in mid-2013. I'd like to take you all through some of that original journey that the team took to launch the game.
ANDOR writer Dan Gilroy has released a statement critiquing the Trump administration and commenting on the parallels between the show and Disney’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel.
“As one of the writers on the Disney+ drama Andor, we spent six years thinking about a fascist takeover of a galaxy far, far away. Six years thinking about ordinary beings as an authoritarian regime comes in for the kill. Many people saw parallels between Andor and the real world. I see them as well, particularly in the events of the last week.
Donald Trump’s tools of governance, coercion and intimidation, have found focus on Hollywood. Faced with a social media firestorm, fear, and an FCC head threatening “they can do this the easy way or hard way,” Disney suspended Jimmy Kimmel for speaking his mind. I deeply disagree but acknowledge it was a difficult decision. If you believe otherwise, wait until fate knocks on your door and demands you choose between conscience and hardship — because if you work in this industry that day is coming.
The suspension bought time, but not much. Disney now stands at a crossroads: terminate Kimmel’s contract and become pavement for the road to a brave new Trumpian world; or stand for the First Amendment and take the onslaught. There’s not much at stake, just free speech, the oxygen that sustains life in this town.
Trump’s aim is to control what we make and say. The concept seems far off and abstract. Neither is true. Is it hard to conjure a new oversight office or cabinet seat? Is it difficult to picture Trump toadies deplaning at LAX with binders of banned topics and mandated alternatives? You’ll meet them when you have to pitch for approval or get grilled about subversive co-workers.
Regardless of how the jack-booted attack on Jimmy Kimmel is resolved, this isn’t a skirmish. It’s a siege. The first thing Putin did after taking power was silence shows that criticized him. Artists are censored first because they fear us most. The fact this isn’t new doesn’t diminish the shock of the last few days. The majority in Hollywood believed their job was entertainment — the bolder souls attempted to inject theme and commentary — but for everyone this has suddenly become Westworld real.
Whether you’re reading this on line at Blue Bottle or killing time before your 3 o’clock Zoom or staring at a glowing screen unable to sleep, we have all become characters in a story where our actions carry actual weight and consequence. Our industry faces the most sophisticated, venomous, creeping evil in America’s history. There’s no standing above this conflict. No impartial observers. If you’re on the sidelines you’ve made a choice and must live with it.
Their goal is to instill fear, to make you feel helpless, hopeless, to break you down. Don’t let them. Educate yourself. Organize. Speak truth to authority. Because the story’s not written — the pen is in your hand.”
>We have a Republican President
>We’re at war in the middle east
>There’s a new Linkin Park Album
>Micheal Bay is directing Transformers
Fuck it close enough welcome back 2007
BREAKING: The Co-op AGM has just voted for a motion to “cease all trading with Israel”
This is a big victory for our movement. We must maintain the pressure to ensure the policy is enforced. (1/6)
hey so what the fuck? Clear violation of HIPAA, and this will snowball to other disabilities, mental illnesses, and then further snowball to Trans people, to sexuality, to race, to religion.
Literal Modern Day Eugenics, this is straight up Nazi shit. They want a Holocaust 2.0
Yeah - so RFK Jr's literal sister (Rosemary Kennedy) was forcefully lobotomized. She very well could have had autism before they scrambled her brain with a fork.
This is not a joke. Mental health is not a joke. And not all mental health problems can be fixed with vegetables and sunlight. (Or a lobotomy.) This heroin addict, with his own self admitted brain worm, should be nowhere near the healthcare system.
Speaking as an atheist I am genuinely very sad to hear this news. Francis spoke out consistently for social justice, for environmental protection, highlighted the evils of capitalism, and throughout the last 18 months condemned the mass murder of Palestinians.
Trump has done *a lot* of criminal, horrible, impeachable shit.
But, if the Trump administration fails to return Garcia, or if any harm has come to him, it will be hands down the most illegal and deplorable action of any US president.
Let's be clear:
-Garcia, while a minor, fled gang targeting in El Salvador and illegally entered the US.
-While here, he eventually married a US citizen, testified against the Barrio 18 gang (even though it risked him being deported) and attempted asylum claims.
-In 2019, he was granted a "Withholding of Removal" and a work permit and so was living in Maryland legally.
-Whenever you are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, whether legally or illegally, you have inalienable rights - the very ones the President's oath of office claims to uphold and defend.
-Garcia was arrested on suspicion of gang activity, and departed with foreign prisons in El Salvador.
The problem is:
-There was no proof given.
-He had a "Withholding of Removal" which meant he could not be deported.
-The government argued they were aware of this withholding order but that he had been departed "by mistake" without any further hearing in court.
Courts had ordered the planes turnaround, an order which according to a passenger affidavit the pilots were aware of, but they were given instructions to ignore.
A Maryland court ordered him returned by no later than April 7th.
The government failed to return him.
The Supreme Court reviewed the case on April 10th and unanimously ordered that the US government must facilitate Garcia's return.
Since then Trump's administration has continued to play games, making excuses of why he cannot be returned, or failing to give updates - with many speculating that Garcia, who testified against gangs he was now in prison with, may not even be alive any more.
At the direction of the President:
-People subject to US jurisdiction were rounded up and deported without time for habeas hearings.
-Including *legal* US residents, against a judges order, who are subject to all rights and protections within the United States.
-Instructions to return the plane were ignored.
-Instructions from a state court were ignored.
-Now the Supreme Court has been ignored.
And the President who is supposed to be the most powerful man in the world, who has a duty to defend and protect those subject to US jurisdiction from wrong-doing, claims that he can't get this man back from El Salvador.
If any harm has come to Garcia, it is blood on the President's hands.
The protections he has ignored would have led to the direct harm of a US resident.
And it will forever be a stain on America, this shameful president, and on the court of John Roberts who allowed for a tyrant to exercise such authorities so repeatedly unchecked.
Israel made a mistake when they murdered 15 medics.
Then they made a mistake burying them so they couldn’t be found.
Then they made a mistake burying their ambulances so they couldn’t be found.
Then they made a mistake telling the world they traveled suspiciously with their lights off.
Until the mobile phone footage was found on one of their bodies…..
There were no mistakes.
This is the most obvious war crime you’ll ever see.
FUCK ISRAEL - DEPRAVED CUNTS
They coordinated with the Red Cross. They went in to save lives. Israel executed all 16 of them—ambulance crews, first responders—then buried their bodies & destroyed their vehicles. This isn’t self-defense. This is a war crime. A massacre. And the world is still silent.
I'm standing with Karam, Hamdan's 7 year old son, near the blood of Hamdan's in his house, after settlers lynched him. Hamdan, co-director of our film No Other Land, is still missing after soldiers abducted him, injured and bleeding. This is how they erase Masafer Yatta.